TWO Basildon AC’s youngsters made people stand up and take notice at the Essex Championships.

Under-13 duo Joseph Harding and Jessica Krise re-wrote the competition’s history books by smashing championship records in the long jump and high jump respectively.

The performances were among the highlights of a typically action-packed weekend of action at Chelmsford’s Melbourne Park.

Harding leaped a massive 5.80m – the third longest jump ever by a British under-13 athlete – to win the gold medal in the long jump, finishing nearly a metre-and-a-half further than anyone else.

That wasn’t all of Harding’s accomplishments over the weekend, however, as he won the 100m too, in a rapid 12.64s.

Krise was also in record-breaking form as she smashed the championship record for the under-13 girls high jump with a leap of 1.52m.

That clearance ranks her third in the country and added to a fine weekend for the New Towners.

The club’s under-20 women had a fine few days, bringing home a clutch of gold medals.

Jemma Pemberton won two golds in the javelin (29.98m) and shot (10.35m), while Olivia Bullis won the under-20 women’s hammer with a PB of 36.25m.

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Basildon AC's successful under-20 women's squad

Victoria Oshunremi rounded off their success by striking gold in the triple jump (10.87m).

There were middle-distance golds too for Kirsty Tydeman (senior women’s 1,500m 4m 46.39s) and Oliver Lill (under-15 boys 800m 2m 9.66s).

There was an incredible under-17 men’s 100m hurdles race where Basildon AC’s Michael Shields – the reigning English Schools champion and the fastest man in his age group in the country – was beaten by one hundredth of a second by Newham & Essex Beagles’ Mayowa Osunsami whose time of 13.07s would have been a championship record had there been a legal wind reading.

The sprint hurdles has traditionally been a strong point in Essex athletics and that theme seems to be continuing as in the under-15 80m hurdles a new championship record was set by Southend High School for Boys’ Sam Bennett.

Bennett clocked a wind-assisted 11.06s which backed up the 11.3s he ran at the Essex Pentathlon Championships a week earlier and ranks him second in the country.

He also won the triple jump with a hop, skip and jump of 11.82m, a distance that puts him fourth in the country for that event.

In fact, it was a good weekend all round for Southend High School for Boys.

Another impressive individual performance came from Jolaoluwa Omotoshi who struck double gold in the under-15 boys shot (11.75m) and hammer (47.54m).

While a team highlight came in the under-15 boys pole vault with Serge Ayao (2.70m) winning gold and Samir Ashraf beating team-mate Andrei Gare on countback after both cleared the same height (2.30m).

Other golds on the day for Southend High came from Kyle Smith in the under-20 men’s shot (13.42m) and Harrison Smith (under-17 men’s pole vault 3.30m).

Dale Clutterbuck provided yet more evidence of his growing confidence with a fantastic middle-distance double at the Essex Championships.

The Canvey 23-year-old produced a remarkable display of front-running to dip inside 3m 45s for the first time in the 1,500m as he stormed to gold in 3m 44.91s.

A day earlier he won the 800m in 1m 49.86s which was the second time in less than a week he had got inside 1m 50s after recording a personal best (PB) of 1m 49.59s at Watford.

Clutterbuck, who is advised by Basildon’s former Commonwealth Games medallist Matthew Yates, is now on the cusp of cracking into the elite level of British middle-distance running after nearly giving up the sport this time last year.

It was a remarkable championships too for Southend AC’s Billy Praim-Singh who won two gold medals and one silver in arguably the strongest area in Essex athletics at the moment.

He won gold medals in the shot putt (14.01m) getting the better of Castle View School talent Victor Adebiyi (13.87m) and Basildon AC’s Harry Smith (11.56m).

Praim-Singh won the discus with a PB throw of 40.67m with Castle View’s Levi Causton winning bronze with 37.57m.

Ironically it was his strongest event which Praim-Singh didn’t win as it was Causton who came out on top.

Causton, who won a bronze medal at last year’s English Schools Championships and is ranked third in the country, won with a throw of 63.21m...just four centimetres further than Praim-Singh’s best effort of 63.17m, which was a new PB and ranks him fifth in the UK.

Southend AC’s other highlight of the weekend was the under-20 women’s 100m where they had a clean sweep of medals.

Jade Packer struck gold with a clocking of 13.03s ahead of team-mates Jasmine Ruscoe (13.51s) and Venessa Monangai (13.63s).

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Venessa Monangai (bronze), Jasmine Ruscoe (silver) and Jade Packer (gold) who dominated the under-20 women's 100m for Southend AC

Packer just missed out on a golden sprint double, finishing second in the 200m (26.83s).

Other golds for the Seasiders came from Joanna Rimmington (under-15 girls 3,000m 10m 39.83s), Sarah Pennington (senior women’s 5,000m 20m 1.39s), Kevin Brown (senior men triple jump 13.85m) and Dan King (senior men’s 3,000m walk 12m 28.46s).

Canvey’s Jodie Judd added three more medals to her growing collection as she had a weekend to remember.

The 16-year-old, representing Castle View School, won the under-17 women’s 800m in a PB of 2m 16.0s and 3,000m (10m 34.07s) and picked up a silver medal in the 1,500m (10m 34.07s).

Castle View had another double gold medallist in the form of Mai Pulham who won the under-13 boys hammer (27.87m), discus (22.61m) and finished second in the high jump (1.40m).

Rayleigh’s Gabrielle Quigley (Chelmsford AC) was another multi gold-medallist, winning both the under-17 women’s discus (34.40m) and shot (11.55m).

Quigley is a pupil at FitzWimarc School and they had more gold medal delight through under-13s Eloise Badger (discus, 23.77m), Abbie Jackson (javelin, 25.41m) and Connor Liddall (shot 8.32m).

Another Rayleigh teenager to strike gold was Laura Runciman in the under-15 girls hammer, as she threw a massive 47.73m that puts her an impressive fourth in the country.

Runicman’s Chelmsford AC’s team-mate Connie Forman, who attends Mayflower School in Billericay, won the under-15 girls long jump with a leap of 5.32m.

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